The Lunch Councils
by SwirlStar
Summary: When Barbossa, Jack, Elizabeth, and Will are all reincarnated into a middle school, nothing good comes out of it.
1. The Three Hotties

All right everyone, this is my first fic, so don't get mad at me if it's not great!  
  
CHAPTER ONE: The Three Hotties  
  
It was the first day of seventh grade for Elizabeth Duck. She looked at her locker mirror to make sure her reddish-brown wavy hair looked perfect, and then proceeded to her first class: Math. On her way, her two best friends Chrissie and Melanie flanked her.  
  
"Omigod, Lizzie, you have to see The Three Hotties," Chrissie said, snapping a piece of Big Red in Lizzie's face.  
  
"'The Three Hotties?'" Lizzie repeated, distracted with her blouse, the one her father (the mayor of their town) insisted she wore for the first day of school. It was cutting off the air in her lungs, and she couldn't breathe.  
  
"Omigod, Lizzie, the new teachers," said Melanie, trying and failing to snap a piece of Carefree in the way Chrissie snapped her gum. Spit flew at Lizzie's face. "Math, Home Ec, and Wood Shop. You got those?"  
  
Lizzie checked her schedule, even though she could care less about the three hotties. "Yes," she sighed. "Unfortunately."  
  
"UNFORTUNATELY?!" Melanie and Chrissie screeched. "You idiot! How could having The Three Hotties as teachers be UNFORTUNATE?!"  
  
Fortunately, the two of Lizzie's so-called best friends had a different schedule than she did, so they veered down another hallway, gossiping, as Lizzie walked into Math class and took a seat.  
  
Glancing up at her teacher, she gasped. He WAS pretty good-looking. His name, Mr. Doorington, was written on the dry-erase board. But as she took out her notebook and started doodling pirate ships on a blank page and he droned on and on, she sooner discovered that this class was going to be extremely dull. She zoned out so much that she didn't notice him glaring down at her.  
  
"Miss Duck, is it?" he said in a voice that seemed vaguely familiar. "Well, there will be no drawing whilst I am talking. Much less pirate ships. Are you aware that that promotes crime on the high seas?"  
  
"I-I." she stuttered.  
  
He nodded. "Didn't think so."  
  
So it was with a heavy heart that Lizzie trudged to Wood Shop, her next class. Maybe the "Second Hottie" would be nicer. Once again, she walked in. Once again, she took her seat. And once again, the teacher, a Mr. Bill Burner, was cute. But unlike Mr. Doorington, he wasn't just cute. He was hot beyond reason. And, like with Doorington, he seemed familiar, but unlike Doorington, he didn't seem just like a lost memory. Trying to remember Mr. Burner was like trying to remember her own name, whereas Doorington was just one of those things lost the crushing black oblivion of time.  
  
"Hello," Mr. Burner greeted, not looking up from his desk. "Time for attendance." He proceeded to perform the task of roll call. Finally he reached the D's. "Dodo, Bird; Doodoo, Deep Doggy; Duck, Elizabeth." At Lizzie's name he stopped. "Elizabeth." Lizzie could see a memory stirring behind his eyes. Once he looked at her, sentimentality flooded his face. "Elizabeth Duck." His fingers subconsciously reached for a swinging gold pendant around his neck. When a flash of sunlight caught it, Lizzie saw the design on it: a skull and crossbones.  
  
A moment passed, and then Mr. Burner was himself again. "Well, Elizabeth," he said in that voice of a memory, "do you like to be called Liz? Or Lizzie?"  
  
"Lizzie," Lizzie said, mystified.  
  
"All right, Lizzie," Mr. Burner said. He finished up the roll call, slammed the attendance book shut, and started addressing the class. "Well, class," he said, flipping around his pen like a fencing sword, "welcome to Wood Shop. I am your teacher, Mr. Bill Burner-"  
  
Suddenly, the teacher's melodious voice was cut off by a startling, unexpected knock on the door. For the rest of the class, it signified a visitor. For Lizzie and Bill, it symbolized the intruder of a memory. 


	2. What Happens When You Eavesdrop

CHAPTER TWO: What Happens When You Eavesdrop  
  
Lizzie felt sick. Whoever was knocking, whoever was on the other side of the door, she knew it was bad.  
  
Mr. Burner seemed to feel the same way. He tentatively went to the entrance, and cautiously opened it. He and Lizzie both gasped at the same time, drawing stares from her peers.  
  
On the other side of the door was an old man who, like The Two Hotties, seemed sickeningly familiar. He couldn't have been The Third Hottie, though he might have been cute if he had been about twenty years younger.  
  
After a long pause, Mr. Burner opened the door wider. "Well.hello, Principal Barbierossa."  
  
"Hello," he said in a chilling Irish intonation. "I'd like to see Elizabeth.Duck."  
  
Fear shot through Lizzie's body. Mr. Burner again fingered his medallion.  
  
"Fine," the hot teacher agreed in a harsh tone. "Lizzie, let us go talk to Principal Barbierossa in the hallway." He emphasized the word us. Lizzie knew that whatever was going on here, Mr. Burner would help her out.  
  
Trembling, Lizzie got up from her seat. She slipped through the doorway, Mr. Burner by her side, and they faced the Principal.  
  
"Thank you, Miss.Duck," Barbierossa said in that chilling voice, leaning closer to her. "You have something that belongs to me."  
  
Lizzie knew she had heard some variation of that sentence before-and not just on cop shows.  
  
"I didn't steal anything if that's what you mean!" she squealed in a shaking soprano. Mr. Burner moved closer to her.  
  
"I know you've got it.It calls to me," he added with a freaky grin. "Your emergency form. The school needs it for early dismissals due to unexpected circumstances."  
  
Mr. Burner and Lizzie breathed a sigh of relief. Lizzie took off her large, hollow earring and cracked it open. Inside lay the folded-up emergency form.  
  
"Here ya go," she said with a smile. "Have a nice day." She put the earring back on and skipped back inside the classroom where foolish students where playing with hammers, glad to be alive.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
The rest of the day proceeded fairly uneventfully. The only other notable class was Home Ec, where The Third Hottie, a Mack Swallow, got drunk all day and insisted they make batch after batch of rum cake. Lizzie did not find it surprising that he seemed familiar as well.  
  
At the clang of the last bell, Lizzie slammed the door of her locker and looked for the best possible route out of the building without running into Chrissie and Melanie on their way to Shopping Club. She took a passage that ran next to the door to the Teacher's Lounge, but stopped when she heard Bill Burner's voice.  
  
"She knows-"  
  
Lizzie pressed her ear to the door harder. Who were they talking about?  
  
Then came Doorington's voice. "She can't know! It's impossible!"  
  
"We know, don't we?" said Mr. Burner, annoyed.  
  
"But we're adults!" hissed Doorington. "She's only a child! She wouldn't be able to handle it!"  
  
"If I ever want to be totally alive, I need her," said the chilling voice of Barbierossa. "I deemed in my past life that she took it from you, Bill, so I need her as well."  
  
"I won't let you have either of us!" insisted Mr. Burner.  
  
"Hear hear!" shouted the drunken Mr. Swallow.  
  
Then came an unfamiliar voice, another's man's, high-pitched and strange. "I be seeing something with my eye, Principal."  
  
"What is it?" said Barbierossa in a bored tone.  
  
"It's her," the unfamiliar voice giggled. "She's right outside the door."  
  
Lizzie tried to run away, but by the time she had taken one step, the door was opened and Barbierossa glared down at her.  
  
"Welcome aboard, Miss Duck," he said. "Care to join us?" Then he left that scary, chilling, familiar laugh. 


	3. Grudges

All right everyone, here is Chapter Three! I'm sorry it took me so long to get it up. Also: I took some liberties with Papel's eye and yes, his seeing Lizzie through the door is meant to pay homage to the fourth Harry Potter book. And the actual Lunch Councils come into play in the next chapter. Read on.  
  
CHAPTER THREE: Grudges  
  
Twenty minutes later, as she stepped out of the teacher's lounge and started to unconsciously walk the familiar path home, Lizzie was in shock. When she woke up that morning, there was no way she could have predicted this. Her.a famous governess of the Caribbean whose name had been lost to the history books? Her.an educated lady among pirates? Even trying to comprehend that she had had a past life was hard.  
  
As she passed the houses that she had known for all twelve years of this life, tears sprang to her eyes. I'm just being silly, she thought. Why should I be crying? This is a refreshing break from the monotony of everyday life. But she knew why water was streaming down her face. She wasn't Lizzie Duck, straight-A student and elegant mayor's daughter anymore. She was now aware of the fact that she was someone else. Someone who had been chasing pirates, Bill Burner, and that medallion thing for the past two or three hundred years. Over generations. Over lifetimes.  
  
Also someone who was being chased herself by Barbierossa and two filthy cafeteria workers, Papel and Ravioli, the former of which had a funky eye and apparently X-ray vision. And someone who could die for stealing the medallion in her past life, as Barbierossa had so kindly explained to her.  
  
Lizzie's head was spinning as she walked up the steps to her family's house- maybe for the last time.  
  
~*~*~*~*~  
  
Over the next few days at school, things did not go well. Lizzie had overheard Barbierossa threatening Bill Burner about the medallion several times, and she resented everything the principal had done to her in past lives. Apparently Bill did too, for he often rolled his eyes when explaining a perfectly reasonable school rule, or scoffed when telling Lizzie more about her past. She could find nothing to blame Doorington and Mack Swallow for, except perhaps the former's affinity for giving homework. They had actually been her allies in another time, Lizzie kept telling herself.  
  
So Bill, Doorington, Mack, and a young girl whose biggest problem a week ago was a blouse that she couldn't breathe in prepared themselves for war against an evil pirate/principal. Nothing could go wrong now except for casualties in the actual war, Lizzie assured herself. Nothing except for the Lunch Councils finding out.  
  
And two days later, they did. 


	4. Lunch Council Number SeventyNine

Yes, that last chapter was a bit short, but this is where the story gets exciting. Or I hope so.Anyway, read on!  
  
CHAPTER FOUR: Lunch Council Number Seventy-Nine  
  
The Lunch Councils were a notorious group of students whose goal was to find out EVERYTHING there was to know in the school. All of the students, including Lizzie were a part of it in some way or another, but most just met at lunch every so often (hence the name) to hear the latest gossip and take notes. Only an elite few actually spied, eavesdropped, conned, and shirked on homework in order to get the news they wanted. Lizzie had worried (an understatement really; her nails were bitten down to the cuticles and she had spent several nights in wakefulness) that they would find out. Now that worry was gone, but the worst was yet to come.  
  
The Seventy-Ninth Lunch Council was scheduled for September eighteenth, two days after the news that a juicy bit of gossip had been discovered leaked out. Lizzie was positive that it was about her, no matter how much she tried to convince herself that it wasn't. So it was with a heavy heart that she dragged herself to lunch that day, where the tables were already set up in the traditional Lunch Council conference style.  
  
If this were a happy story, the item of discussion would not be about her. But I am sorry to echo Lemony Snicket and announce that this is NOT a happy story, and the item discussed was about the ill-fated couple Lizzie and Bill. As our protagonist, known only to the Lunch Council president as a lowly seventh-grade secretary to him, pulled out a pad of paper and started to take notes, the said president cleared his throat and announced, "This meeting of the Lunch Councils, the seventy-ninth in the series of Councils, will come to order. As you may have heard, there is an issue needed to be dealt with.  
  
"At the beginning of the school year, the new Wood Shop teacher, Mr. Bill Burner, was discovered to be a hottie by some of our female correspondents. But even though they thought he was cute, they were forbidden from falling in love with him by Article 181, Section 43, Paragraph 2 in the Lunch Council guidelines: No student may fall in love with an authoritive teacher. Remember, it is the school we are trying to work against. But one student has now crossed over the line. She has fallen into the trap of his brown eyes as well as his C clamp. We also have reason to believe that Mr. Swallow, Mr. Doorington, and Principal Barbierossa are involved with matchmaking the two. But we shall punish the offending student, as well as notify the police that Mr. Burner is liaisoning with a minor."  
  
Lizzie felt sick. This was horrible. Poor Bill. Now the police were on his tail, as well as Barbierossa. And she couldn't forget the Council giving her a punishment, too.  
  
"But what is the student's name?" shouted one of the eighth-graders. Lizzie shifted in her seat. This was shaping up to be the worst day of her life.  
  
The president consulted his papers. "Her name-"  
  
At that moment, Bill rushed into the cafeteria, followed by the other two hotties and Barbierossa, who had the medallion. "NOOOOO!!" he shouted in a terrifying, desperate scream.  
  
The president smirked. "-is Elizabeth Duck." 


	5. Bloody Brilliant

I am making this up as I go along, so it's probably not going to be the best chapter. Also: I'm not sure exactly whether Lizzie would actually be included in the curse for stealing the stolen medallion from Bill in her past life, but it's just a guess.  
  
CHAPTER FIVE: Bloody Brilliant  
  
It took a second for Lizzie to react. Then she was out of her seat and out the door, Bill, Mack, Doorington, Barbierossa and the majority of the smarter student body following. (The stupider ones hadn't realized what was going on yet and were still lolling in their seats discussing cafeteria food.)  
  
Skidding outside, Lizzie ran on to the field and scrambled up the bleachers, disturbing the couples beneath with her stomping. Mack was too drunk to gain a foothold and thusly slipped and fell, but Doorington and Bill rushed up to help her and Barbierossa followed. The Lunch Councils were not as lucky. Since they were such a big group, they were pushing this way and that and only the president managed to alight onto the bleachers.  
  
All too soon, Lizzie was at the top. There was no place to go, no place to hide. Barbierossa and the president were closing in. She turned to Doorington and Bill, then looked up at the tall commentator's stand used for football games towering above her. She gulped.  
  
Bill seemed to follow her train of thought. "Do you-are you . . ."  
  
"Yes," she stuttered. "It's our only hope. Come on, fellows. Give me a boost."  
  
With seconds to spare before the two villains below reached them, Bill and Doorington each seized a foot and lifted her up. Lizzie felt herself swaying precariously in the wind, but she held on to the railing on the bleachers with all of her might. Once she was high enough up, she grabbed onto the side of the stand and hosted herself up higher until she dropped into the box and breathed a huge sigh of relief. Then, realizing that there were still allies to save, she swung up to grab Bill's hands and tried to lift him up.  
  
But she couldn't. And not just because he was a lot heavier than her. Barbierossa was pulling on his legs from below, taking care not to drop the Bill's medallion. Suddenly, Bill fell, bringing Lizzie with him. The two landed on Barbierossa, who grabbed Doorington and the president as they all tumbled down to the unforgiving earth below. Lizzie heard a crack as she felt a wrenching pain in her leg. It was broken.  
  
There was still a battle to fight. Fists raised, she glared menacingly at Barbierossa and the president, but the former simply pulled out a knife and sliced her hand, spilling blood onto the medallion. Then he turned to the injured Bill and did the same, crying "Blood by blood undone!"  
  
As Bill had explained to her, she had stolen the medallion from him, so she was cursed as well. Lizzie would had pondered this had she not been facing the president now as Barbierossa basked in the warm glow of winning a centuries-old campaign.  
  
"Please-" she begged him. "You don't understand. Bill and I . . . let's just say we go back a long way. Please don't take him away from me. Please."  
  
But the president did not relent. Lizzie had never realized how cruel and hardcore the Lunch Councils could be until he drew a gun. Lizzie was ready to die for Bill, but the student turned on the teacher and shot him. Poor Bill didn't have a chance.  
  
He was dead. Dead. Everything was lost. And it was all Lizzie's fault.  
  
She draped herself over his body and cried. 


	6. Love Across Time

The last chapter. Poor Bill, no? Anyway, like Chapter Five, this one will be a downer. Also, the ending contains a huge twist because I was not sure what to do. You can decide for yourself if it's a dream or an illusion or real. And I didn't know the exact lines so I wrote as best as I could from memory.  
  
CHAPTER SIX: Love Across Time  
  
A few days later, Lizzie was composing an essay for homework at her desk alone with her broken leg, annoying cast, and morbid thoughts.  
  
The police interviews where all done. The president was in jail until his sentencing and the Lunch Councils had broken up. Mack Swallow had been ordered to attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and Barbierossa's suspicious role in things had lead to him being suspended from the school. Rumor was that Doorington was going to take over permanently, for he was in his element ruling the school temporarily. The rest of the school was full of hushed whispers and mournful shock. Chrissie and Melanie had distanced themselves from the disgraced Lizzie, who was hailed by the popular girls as "the cause of the hottie's death" and the Lunch Council zealots as "pure evil."  
  
As for Lizzie herself, she was doing okay-or as okay as one whose eternity- long boyfriend who was dead could be. She kept telling herself that she had only known him for a few days, and that they would meet in the next life, but it was too much. She longed for him every minute, every second, all the time. There wasn't a day where she didn't meditate on something he had said to her. The worst thing was that this would happen again . . . and again . . . until the world came to and end and their spirits met.  
  
Standing up and stretching, she hopped over to her bed and gazed at the sun out of the window. Reaching into the dark recesses of her memory, she tried to think of a time-days, weeks, months, years, ages ago-when she had stood somewhere else, in Bill's arms, gazing at the same sun.  
  
Tears rolled down her cheeks as she thought of the people that stood within her now-the young girls, pirate princesses, and other nameless entities that she had been-and the noble people within Bill that had died with him.  
  
She focused on the people that others might have been-Mack, Doorington, Barbierossa, Papel, Ravioli, maybe even Chrissie and Melanie, or her father, or the president-and who they would be. She saw new people, new places, new ideas flash by her eyes as she saw the sun brighten until she was spinning into it, blinded, dying-  
  
Snapping out of her vision, she turned at the sound of someone knocking at her door. A familiar voice called, "Elizabeth? Still abed at this hour?"  
  
The name that was spinning in her mind, Lizzie Duck, spun around and around until it meant no more. She was someone different and yet the same. Jumping up and throwing a robe around herself, she called back, "Just a minute!"  
  
THE END 


End file.
